Day 14: The Action-First Principle

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The majority of people looking for motivation will wait for something, or someone, to come around and motivate them before they can get up and take action to motivate themselves.

This is the wrong approach.

I operated with this “motivation comes before action” mentality for years before finally realizing that I had it all backwards…

I would look for ways to get motivated to exercise, to get up early, or to stop procrastinating and do my work… and I’d be motivated about doing these things for a little while, but shortly thereafter, the motivation would fade and I’d stop taking action.

Then I realized that the lifespan of motivation is a lot like the honeymoon phase of a new relationship—it’s really exciting at first, but that feeling doesn’t last.

A relationship needs to be tended to, with small and thoughtful actions, in order to sustain itself.

Motivation works in a similar way.

We need to take small and thoughtful actions to keep the motivation train moving along, or else it’ll lose steam and come to a screeching halt.

This realization led me to a simple discovery, which I now believe is the most important thing you need to know about getting motivated to make things happen: Action leads to motivation.

Action Leads To Motivation

Here’s how most people approach motivation:

MOTIVATION → ACTION → MORE MOTIVATION

Here’s how motivation really works:

ACTION → MOTIVATION → MORE MOTIVATION

Regardless of what you want to get motivated about, the answer always begins with action.

Action is the impetus for motivation.

Action is the precursor to motivation.

Action comes FIRST, motivation comes after.

🛑 We want to STOP saying:
“I need to get motivated to take action.”

✅ We want to START saying:
“I need to take action to get motivated.”

I often tell people who struggle with motivation and productivity:

It’s easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than it is to feel yourself into a better way of acting.

Grab your fattest sharpie and write that down.

Then tape it up somewhere you know you’ll see it on a daily basis.

And next time you find yourself thinking, “Gosh, I don’t feel motivated to do anything right now” — STOP.

Then remind yourself that:

ACTION COMES FIRST, MOTIVATION FOLLOWS.